The Atlanta Dream are 1-0 in the semifinals because of a lot of things.
Jordin Canada scored 25 points. DeWanna Bonner added 23 points and nine rebounds. Rhyne Howard finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Atlanta forced New York into 19 turnovers and walked away with a 92-82 victory in Game 1.
But there is something happening with this Dream team that isn’t as easily captured in a box score.
Humility.
And humility might ultimately be the reason Atlanta gets where it wants to go.
That may sound strange when talking about a team filled with accomplished players. This isn’t a roster short on confidence, awards or star power.
Canada certainly isn’t lacking confidence.
After her 25-point performance, she was asked about succeeding as a smaller guard in a league where size can become part of the conversation surrounding a player.
“It don’t matter about height,” Canada said. “It’s all about the heart that you have.”
Then she made her belief in herself even clearer.
“When I go out there, I know I’m one of the best players on the floor, and that’s how I act.”
That’s confidence.
Humility is something different.
Humility is having that confidence and still being willing to listen when someone tells you that you can be better.
That’s where DeWanna Bonner comes in.
Bonner arrived in Atlanta late in the season under circumstances that could have created an awkward dynamic.
The Dream were already established. They had their stars. They had their leaders. They had their rotations, relationships and habits. They had spent months building an identity without Bonner.
Then one of the most experienced players in the league walked through the door.
And Bonner didn’t arrive simply looking for a place to stand in the corner and shoot.
She came with something to say.
Atlanta had to decide whether it wanted to hear it.
Dream coach Karl Smesko knew exactly what he believed Bonner could provide.
“I just thought she was exactly what we needed,” Smesko said.
Atlanta had apparently pursued Bonner before without being able to make it happen. When the opportunity finally became real, Smesko wasn’t looking only at Bonner’s résumé or the experience she could bring into the locker room.
He believed she could still play.
Game 1 provided plenty of evidence.
Bonner scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds in Atlanta’s win.
“That was a huge performance, and we needed plays made,” Smesko said.
But what Bonner has brought to Atlanta extends beyond the numbers.
“I knew it would have a big impact on our team and what we could accomplish,” Smesko said, “and she’s done everything that we could ever have hoped for her to be.”
That kind of impact doesn’t happen simply because a veteran decides she wants to lead.
The locker room has to allow it.
That’s the part of this story that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Atlanta could have rejected Bonner.
Think about what it takes for an established team to allow someone who wasn’t there for most of the season to arrive and immediately begin challenging things.
The natural response could have been: Who are you to tell us?
The Dream could have told Bonner, directly or indirectly, that they were already winning before she arrived. They could have asked her to learn their system, fit into their culture, shoot when she was open and leave the leadership to the people who had been there all year.
Instead, they listened.
And according to Bonner, they didn’t merely tolerate her voice.
They wanted it.
“I feel like they made it really easy coming here,” Bonner said. “That’s what they wanted. That’s what they needed.”
That may be the most important thing Bonner has said about her transition to Atlanta.
Because leadership isn’t something one player can impose on a locker room.
It has to be accepted.
Bonner said she didn’t call other athletes for advice on how to accelerate that process or manufacture relationships with her new teammates.
“No, I kind of just lead it my own way,” Bonner said.
Her way was developed over years of watching other veterans lead. She referenced the experienced players she learned from earlier in her career and explained that those examples helped shape her own approach.
“I just had great leaders, so I kind of know what it takes to stay around,” Bonner said. “And then I just kind of mold from there and lead it my own way.”
Atlanta has given her room to do exactly that.
Sometimes it happens in small moments.
Te-Hina Paopao is one of the younger players on this Dream team and one of its most popular.
Before Game 1, I asked a Dream fan to name her three favorite Atlanta players. Allisha Gray made the list. So did Howard and Canada.
But the fan wasn’t finished.
She made sure Paopao received an honorable mention.
That’s not unusual around this team. Talk to Dream fans and you quickly understand the affection for Paopao. They love her energy. They love the infectious laugh. And they know that whether she gets five minutes or considerably more, she is going to bring everything she has.
Paopao has also talked during the season about learning to remain locked in.
That’s where a veteran such as Bonner becomes valuable.
Bonner can recognize when a younger teammate needs to refocus. She can challenge her to stay engaged for another possession, another stretch, another five minutes.
And Atlanta’s young players are willing to receive that message.
That’s humility.
It has shown up in other moments, too.
After one Dream victory, with emotions high as Atlanta left the floor, one of the team’s young stars began waving goodbye toward the opposing crowd.
Bonner reached over and lowered her arm.
There was still work to do.
The younger player could have pulled away. She could have rejected the correction. Accomplished players don’t always appreciate someone telling them how to behave in the emotion immediately following a win.
Instead, she accepted the gesture, smiled and walked away alongside Bonner.
Again: humility.
Smesko sees the same quality from Bonner on the basketball court.
In Game 1, Atlanta asked Bonner to handle multiple assignments. She defended players who have reached the highest individual levels in the league. She moved between positions, including spots where she hadn’t spent significant practice time.
Her experience allowed her to figure it out.
“She just knows where the ball should move and what the next action should be,” Smesko said.
But his next observation explains why Bonner has become so important to this particular Dream team.
“She has a lot of enthusiasm when she plays, but she also has like a calming presence about her,” Smesko said. “She knows when the emotion can ramp up, she can get everybody settled and lock things in the next play.”
That’s postseason basketball.
Talent matters.
So does knowing when the emotion of the moment is beginning to pull a team away from what it needs to do.
And then came halftime of Game 1.
Atlanta and New York were locked in a playoff fight. There was no guarantee the Dream were walking out of the building with a 1-0 series lead.
Before Smesko even entered the locker room, his players were already talking.
“I give the credit to the players,” Smesko said. “They get in the locker room, and they talk about things before I get in there.”
By the time the coaching staff began addressing adjustments, Smesko could tell the players had already recognized many of the same things.
“When I start talking about adjustments, I can tell they’ve already talked about the same adjustments,” he said.
Bonner was part of that conversation.
What exactly did she tell them?
She’s not saying.
At least not yet.
Asked afterward if she would reveal her halftime message, Bonner kept the details inside the locker room.
“Maybe after the series I’ll share it,” she said.
That answer almost says as much as revealing the speech would have.
Whatever was said belonged to the team.
And Atlanta came out of that locker room ready to finish the job.
Canada’s description of what has changed within the Dream provides perhaps the clearest explanation of why these moments matter.
“I think for us, it’s just our maturity and managing our emotions and valuing the possessions a little bit more,” Canada said.
That maturity becomes especially important when an opponent makes a run.
Basketball doesn’t allow teams to dominate every minute. Leads disappear. Momentum changes. The crowd changes. A bad possession becomes two, and suddenly a game that felt comfortable isn’t comfortable anymore.
Canada believes this Dream team has become better at handling those moments.
“Even if they do go on a run, we’re able to come right back out and execute something on the offensive end or get a stop on the defensive end,” she said.
That is where humility and confidence meet.
Canada can walk onto the floor believing she’s one of the best players out there.
Howard can be a star.
Gray can be an All-Star.
Atlanta’s veterans can trust everything they’ve learned over years in this league.
Its younger players can believe they’re ready for the moment.
And all of them can still listen.
That’s the difference.
The Dream don’t have to listen to DeWanna Bonner.
They choose to.
They have enough individual accomplishments to dismiss her. They have enough confidence to believe they already know what they’re doing. They have enough talent to convince themselves that talent alone will eventually be enough.
Instead, they embraced someone who arrived late and started challenging them almost immediately.
Bonner didn’t just join the Atlanta Dream.
Atlanta gave her permission to help change them.
“She’s just been fantastic,” Smesko said. “She’s making a huge difference for us, and we’re gonna need more of it going forward.”
He’s right about the last part.
Atlanta is only up 1-0.
One victory doesn’t win a semifinal series. It certainly doesn’t win a championship.
There is still work to do.
Bonner seems determined to make sure everybody understands that.
And this Dream team appears humble enough to listen.
Atlanta has the talent.
It has the stars.
It has the veterans.
It has the youth.
It has confidence.
And now it has someone who has been where this team is trying to go, telling the Dream what it takes when the games become harder, possessions become more valuable and emotions become more difficult to control.
Maybe after the series Bonner will finally tell everybody what she said in that locker room.
If the Dream end that series where they want to be, it might be worth the wait.
